Archives for April 25, 2012

NEW LONDON, CT, April 25, 2012 — The guys from the musically geeky Acoustic Addicts webshow have made test recordings of five Martin guitars in this, their second episode at youtube.com/AcousticAddicts. Carl and Richard compare the recordings with spectral analysis.

Serious acoustic guitar players know all about Martin, the company from Nazareth, PA that put the steel string guitar on the map. Martin has continuously put out top-shelf instruments since 1833. The second episode of Acoustic Addicts is all about comparing Martin dreadnought-style guitars.

Guitarist Carl Franklin and acoustic guitar specialist Richard Caruso compare a 2011 D-18 sporting a mahogany back and sides, a 2011 D-28 with East Indian rosewood back and sides, a 2011 D-35 – which has a higher-grade sitka spruce top as well as lighter bracing and a three-piece back (also East Indian rosewood), a 1968 D-35 which also has the 1/4″ bracing but sports Brazilian rosewood sides and three-piece back, and a 1997 HD-35 that has scalloped bracing as well as East Indian rosweood sides and three-piece back. They also throw an entry-level Yamaha Gigmaker into the mix.

Caruso and Franklin do a sort-of “show and tell” for the instruments, highlighting their design features and hinting at aural strengths and/or weaknesses. Franklin gives his golden-ear impressions of their overall sound, and Caruso’s seemingly endless guitar-making stories leave you wanting more.

Viewers watch a real-time spectrum analyzer as Franklin strums and picks each guitar. At the end of the show they look at recordings of Franklin strumming an E chord with each guitar in Adobe Audition’s “Spectral View”, which shows more intense colors where there is more saturation in the frequency spectrum. Yummy!

Acoustic Addicts seems to appeal to a new breed of guitar player who enjoys both the art and science of the instrument in equal measure. Even if you just fancy good guitar playing, you’ll be intrigued by Caruso’s storytelling and Franklin’s picking.

DENVER, CO, April 25, 2012 — Oniqua MRO Analytics (www.oniqua.com), the leading provider of analytics-based MRO optimization solutions for asset-intensive organizations, today announced that Nebraska Public Power District has chosen Oniqua Analytics Solution (OAS) to optimize its MRO inventory activities, which include cost management, controlling inventory growth levels and improving critical material availability across its operations.

Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) is Nebraska’s largest electric utility, with a chartered territory including all or parts of 91 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. NPPD generating facilities include a nuclear plant (Cooper Nuclear Station), three steam plants (Canaday, Gerald Gentleman Station and Sheldon), a combined-cycle facility (Beatrice Power Station), wind generation and hydroelectric facilities, and three peaking units. Over 5,000 miles of transmission lines make up the NPPD electrical grid system, which delivers power to over one million Nebraskans.

“Our main mission at NPPD is to safely generate and deliver reliable, low cost, sustainable energy and provide outstanding customer service,” stated NPPD CEO and President Pat Pope. “One of the critical path areas for providing reliable electric service to our customers is ensuring high availability of the spare parts and materials required to support our MRO activities, while ensuring we do so in a cost-effective and responsible manner.”

As a key step in early due diligence, Oniqua performed a Business Value Assessment (BVA). As part of the BVA process, Oniqua’s Professional Services team reviews prospective clients’ current operations and leverages actual client data from their ERP and EAM systems to map out specific areas where significant business value can be achieved. An indicative project scope and business case is then developed and presented.

“As part of our BVA process, we gathered input from key NPPD stakeholders, configured OAS to reflect NPPD’s business needs, conducted a preliminary optimization of their inventory and reviewed the results with the team,” stated Steve Sotwick, Vice President, Oniqua MRO Analytics. “The final report provided a set of recommendations that identified several key areas where NPPD could take immediate action to optimize inventory levels and save cost, all while maintaining or improving service levels.”

The implementation phase of OAS began in April 2012, and is expected to be in full production state for use by late summer 2012. To help institute best business practices for MRO materials management and ensure NPPD receives maximum value from OAS, NPPD will work closely with Oniqua’s Professional Services team, which consists of experienced MRO industry consultants across materials management, engineering and maintenance disciplines.

“With a utility’s sizable and widely distributed MRO inventory, an investment in inventory optimization provides significant returns,” commented Ralph Rio, Research Director of Enterprise Software, ARC Advisory Group. In a recent research report entitled, Utilities Improve Financial Performance for MRO Inventory, Maintenance, and Procurement, Ralph stated, “OAS provides utilities with a comprehensive solution for optimizing MRO inventory, maintenance and procurement activities. It uses analytical tools to determine what materials are needed, when they should be ordered, how much stock to maintain, and what suppliers to use.” Ralph added, “Inventory optimization improves asset uptime and materials cost which also benefits the P&L statement, balance sheet and shareholder value.”

Powered by intelligent analytics technology, OAS is the only analytics-based solution of its kind to optimize supply chain and asset management operations across the full range of MRO activities, including equipment performance, maintenance effectiveness, inventory optimization, procurement effectiveness, supplier performance and supply chain effectiveness.

OAS is offered as a hosted solution as well as through an on-premise licensing model.

About Oniqua MRO Analytics
With operations in the Americas, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions, Oniqua is the world’s leading MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Operations) analytics software company. Oniqua helps organizations maximize profits, savings and efficiencies by minimizing MRO waste, and delivers a positive return on investment in as little as three to six months. Oniqua Analytics Solution (OAS) leverages customers’ transactional data by applying advanced analytics to identify inefficiencies and ensure that their maintenance, inventory and procurement operations run as efficiently as possible. Oniqua is proud to serve the world’s leading companies in the oil and gas, mining, utilities and other asset-intensive industries, including ConocoPhillips, BP, Hawaiian Electric, Nebraska Public Power District, Orange County Transportation Authority, Vale, Codelco, Rio Tinto, Anglo Coal, BHP Billiton, Newmont Mining, Alcoa, Xstrata, Drummond Company, Freeport McMoRan and many others. www.oniqua.com

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1831 – The New York and Harlem Railway was incorporated in New York City.

1928 – Buddy, the first seeing eye dog, was presented to Morris S. Frank on this day. Many seeing eye organizations and schools continue to offer specially trained dogs “…to enhance the independence, dignity, and self-confidence of blind people…”

1938 – Your Family and Mine, a radio serial, was first broadcast.

1940 – W2XBS (now WCBS-TV) in New York City presented the first circus on TV. No, it wasn’t a political debate or a daytime tabloid talk show. It was a three-hour special broadcast from Madison Square Garden.

1943 – Rufus Gentry, playing for Buffalo in the International Baseball League, tied a record originally set in 1916 by winning an 11-inning, no-hitter. Buffalo defeated Newark 1-0.

1946 – The popular Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra recorded Cement Mixer for Majestic records, tapes and CDs this day. Well, not tapes and CDs. We were still listening to 78s back then … thick, heavy ones, at that.

1953 – NBC-TV presented Ethel and Albert, the video version of the popular radio show. Peg Lynch and Alan Bunce starred in the program.

1954 – The prototype manufacture of a new solar battery was announced by the Bell Laboratories in New York City.

1959 – The St. Lawrence Seaway opened to traffic, saving shippers millions of dollars. By going from the sea to the Great Lakes across upstate New York, folks no longer had to ship goods the long, costly over land.

1967 – Colorado Governor John Love signed the first law legalizing abortion in the United States. The law was limited to therapeutic abortions when agreed to, unanimously, by a panel of three physicians.

1970 – DJs around the U.S. played the new number one song, ABC, quite often, as The Jackson 5 reached the number one spot in pop music for two weeks. ABC was the second of four number one songs in a row for the group from Gary, IN. I Want You Back was their first. ABC was one of 23 hits for Michael, Tito, Jackie, Jermaine and Marlon. ABC was knocked out of first place by The Guess Who and their hit, American Woman. I’m Casey Kasem. And the countdown continues…

1972 – Bill Sharman, ending his first year as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, was named Coach of the Year in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Sharman had a first year record of 69 wins and 13 losses.

1973 – The group, The Sweet, received a gold record for the hit Little Willy. The English rocker band recorded four hits in addition to their first million-seller, Ballroom Blitz, Fox on the Run, Action and Love is like Oxygen. Little Willy was a top-three hit, while the group’s other gold record winner, Fox on the Run made it to the top five.

1985 – Big River (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Broadway in New York City. The Tony Award-winning score for the show was written by Roger Miller (his first Broadway production). The show, about life on the Mississippi, with Daniel Jenkins in the starring role of Huck Finn, ran for 1,005 performances and won the Tony for Best Musical of the Year. Big River picked up several more Tony Awards: Featured Actor in a Musical to Ron Richardson; Best Director (Musical) to Des McAnuff; Best Book (Musical) to William Hauptman; and Best Scenic Designer and Lighting Designer to Heidi Landesman and Richard Riddell respectively.

1999 – More than 70,000 mourners gathered in Littleton, Colorado to honor the victims of the Columbine High School massacre five days earlier. “All of us must change our lives to honor these children,” Vice President Al Gore told the crowd a few blocks from the high school. “More than ever, I realize every one of us is responsible for all of the children.”

1945 – Stu Cook
musician: bass: group: Creedence Clearwater Revival: Susie Q, Proud Mary, Keep on Chooglin’, Green River, Lodi, Bad Moon Rising, Wrote a Song for Everyone, Midnight Special, Down on the Corner, Up Around the Bend, Lookin’ Out My Back Door, Who’ll Stop the Rain, Have You Ever Seen the Rain, Someday Never Comes